Some computer systems support use of dual displays. For instance, some personal computer systems are adapted to feed images to two display ports; one port attaching to a primary display unit and the other attaching to a secondary display unit. For such dual display arrangements, existing software only allows feeding of identical images to both display units.
However, this constraint may not be suited for presentations of display material containing private or confidential matter not intended for viewing by the public at large. Consider, for instance, a presentation to an audience given by a user of a computer adapted for dual display usage (e.g. a laptop computer); wherein a basic display port is coupled to a local monitor (e.g. a laptop LCD) seen only by the user, and a secondary display port is coupled to a remote display (e.g. a projection system) having an image seen by the audience. Assume further that the image to be shown on the local monitor contains both public matter to be shown to the audience and private matter (e.g. speech notes) intended to be viewed only by the computer user. Although the private matter is not intended to be seen by the audience, it needs to be kept together with the public matter, at the local monitor, so as to properly cue or otherwise facilitate oral explanation of the public matter.
Accordingly, the problem addressed by the present invention is to adapt a computer system supporting dual displays to allow for feeding different images simultaneously to the two ports; a particular use for this being to allow for displaying both private and public matter on a primary local display unit, while restricting images fed to a secondary display unit (either local or remote) to only the public matter.